The dismissal of the second degree assault charge against Lt. Brian Rice is just another setback for prosecutors in the Freddie Gray case who have yet to secure a conviction through three trials.

Officer William Porter’s trial ended in a hung jury last December. He is to be re-tried in September. Officers Edward Nero and Caesar Goodson were acquitted by Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams in May and June, respectively.

And prosecutors have been having a hard time proving Rice bears any responsibility for Gray’s April 2015 death from a severe spinal injury.

A neurosurgeon has testified at the trial of a Baltimore police officer facing criminal charges after the arrest and death of a young black man that the man suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury and could still move his head and talk.

Prosecutors argued Thursday that Lt. Brian Rice, as shift commander, had ultimate responsibility for keeping Freddie Gray safe in the back of a police van the day of his arrest, but that he failed to do so by not securing Gray with a seatbelt.

Outside of that, much of what Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Michael Schatzow told Circuit Judge Barry Williams in his opening statements in Rice’s trial was similar to what he said in the trials of Officers Caesar Goodson and Edward Nero.

A state commission charged with determining whether Maryland students spend too much time taking standardized tests issued a final report today. Among the recommendations was a suggestion that local jurisdictions examine their own required tests.

Fraser Smith and Melissa Deckman, chair of the political science department at Washington College, take up Donald Trump's vice presidential choice, Hillary Clinton's e-mail woes and the matter of trust.

The trial of Lt. Brian Rice, the highest ranking officer of the six charged in last year’s death of Freddie Gray, is to begin Thursday morning. And it will be a bench trial.

Rice, who has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, second degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment, waived his right to a jury trial during a hearing before Circuit Judge Barry Williams Tuesday.